{"id":6732,"date":"2006-03-01T09:10:25","date_gmt":"2006-03-01T14:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6732"},"modified":"2006-03-01T09:10:25","modified_gmt":"2006-03-01T14:10:25","slug":"bush-sees-political-capital-that-doesnt-seem-to-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/bush-sees-political-capital-that-doesnt-seem-to-exist\/","title":{"rendered":"Bush sees political capital that doesn’t seem to exist"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the election, talk of Bush’s “political capital” was all the rage. It was the “first buzzword of the second Bush administration<\/a>,” and according to Karl Rove and the rest of the “strategery” team, this capital would be key to helping Bush execute a bold second-term strategy.<\/p>\n

The premise of the idea was straightforward enough: After the 2004 election, Bush, as a political leader, had built up enough popularity and credibility that he could take on a controversial issue — which would almost certainly undermine that popularity — but maintain a strong political position. He would, in effect, “invest” the political capital.<\/p>\n

But if a president no longer has a reservoir of popularity and\/or support, the capital is gone. Bush, however, doesn’t see it that way, as he explained to ABC News<\/a> yesterday.<\/p>\n

VARGAS: I am going to ask about a poll, just the most recent poll that’s out today that does have your approval rating at an all-time low for your administration. You don’t care about that, but you have talked a lot about political capital, the importance of it, the value of it, your intention to use it. Do you think you have political capital right now?<\/p>\n

BUSH: I’ve got ample capital and I’m using it to spread freedom and to protect the American people, plus we’ve got a strong agenda to keep this economy growing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maybe inside Bush’s bubble, there’s “ample” political capital, but everywhere else, the president’s support is practically gone. Even on national security issues, congressional Republicans are backing<\/a> away<\/a> from the White House. The fact that president believes otherwise is just bizarre.
\n
\nAnd speaking of bizarre, Bush’s ABC interview was actually broken up into two parts. The first dealt with the substantive matters of state, but the second was a more personal discussion about Bush’s family, his dogs, and his relationships. There wasn’t much in the way of news, but there was one exchange<\/a> that was particularly odd.<\/p>\n

BUSH: You know an interesting story about the rug? Laura designed the rug.<\/p>\n

VARGAS: She did?<\/p>\n

BUSH: Yeah, she did. Presidents are able to pick their own rugs or design their own rugs.<\/p>\n

VARGAS: Did you just change the rug, or did you change some of the furniture as well?<\/p>\n

BUSH: Changed the rug, no, the rugs been here since I’ve been here. Or actually since she designed the rug and then it was woven.<\/p>\n

VARGAS: So what happens when you’re finished?<\/p>\n

BUSH: It goes in a warehouse.<\/p>\n

VARGAS: It does?<\/p>\n

BUSH: Yeah. (Laughs)<\/p>\n

VARGAS: You’re not going to take it home and put it in a family room or something?<\/p>\n

BUSH: I don’t get to. I think this is government property, Elizabeth. And as you know, you got to leave government property where it belongs. But the interesting thing about this rug, and why I like it in here is ’cause I told Laura one thing. I said, “Look, I can’t pick the colors and all that. But make it say ‘optimistic person.'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m curious, how can a rug say “optimistic person”?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the election, talk of Bush’s “political capital” was all the rage. It was the “first buzzword of the second Bush administration,” and according to Karl Rove and the rest of the “strategery” team, this capital would be key to helping Bush execute a bold second-term strategy. The premise of the idea was straightforward enough: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}